***THIS BOOK WAS PROVIDED TO NERD GIRL IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW***

Synopsis

When one of Randi Conway’s psychotherapy patients is found dead of a gunshot wound, the investigation is turned over to Lieutenant Anthony Walker.

Formerly a New York City cop, Walker now serves on the police force of an affluent community in Fairfield County, Connecticut. He lives among the privileged gentry, where he understands that appearances are often far removed from reality. This certainly proves to be true in the death of Elizabeth Knoebel, when Walker discovers that she had been keeping a private journal entitled “SEXUAL RITES”.

In her diary, Elizabeth was recording the explicit details of her sexual adventures with various men, many of whom were married to the women in her therapy group. Elizabeth was a predator bent on seducing and, in some instances, humiliating these men, obsessed with a perverse mission that Walker believes led to her murder.

As Walker uncovers the secrets of Elizabeth’s memoir, he becomes convinced that her killer is another of Randi Conway’s patients.

The Blue Journal by L.T. Graham is a sexually-charged murder mystery. It is part police-procedural mystery and part erotic diary. L.T. Graham is the pen name of an established suspense writer.

The Blue Journal is told primarily from the point of view of Detective Anthony Walker. He’s a transplanted from the NYPD to a small town in Connecticut. The murder victim’s electronic diary/book chapters break-up the police procedural and provide segues to investigation of the various suspects. Interspersed with these are chapters on how a local psychologist/marriage therapist, Dr. Randi Conway, is intricately involved with the murder victim and the suspects. There is a sense of menace whenever the story turns to Dr. Conway. She is an unwitting link between victim, suspect and the police. There is quite a lot going on in this book, but the complexity makes it more interesting.

Murder victim, Elizabeth Knoebel, is not a nice person nor is she well liked. Her journal entries are sexually explicit, and they spell out the extent of her underhanded manipulation of everyone around her. Every move she makes is part of her game. Sadly for her, someone got tired of her game and ended it rather permanently. Sadly for the reader, just about everyone in the book is a suspect. One of the police characters says, “…we’ve got too many damned suspects”, and I must concur. The most likely suspects are thoroughly investigated, and not too many of them are crossed off Detective Walker’s list until close to the end of the story. There are twists and turns and red herrings, but I was able to figure out the murderer well before the end of the book.

The main characters, Randi Conway and Anthony Walker, are developed as they get to know one another. The secondary characters are developed as they are investigated by the police. Readers have a clear picture of everyone who is tangentially involved in the mystery. The plot is evenly paced with a sense of dread and foreboding throughout. Detective Walker’s poker face and solid sleuthing eventually solve this small town murder.